Food Reads:
Six Degrees of Hippie Bull#&!# (from Stories and Sweet Potatoes)
Had me laughing out loud. I do see me in her characterizations, but I never swaddled my newborns in cloth bags. :) Plus, any blog post that references Kevin Bacon in Tremors is a winner in my book.
Food Deserts and Obesity Role Challenged (NY Times)
I’ve been reading more lately about Food Deserts and found this article to be interesting, as well as the discussions in the comment section. Obesity and poverty are very clearly related, but it’s such a complicated issue.
Mothering Reads:
How to Help A Friend Who Has a Child with Mental Illness (from It’s Almost Naptime)
Wonderfully written. I have so much respect for those who mother special needs kids.
Pottery Barn Names – The New Trend? (from She Knows)
I thought I was picking non-trendy names (and I had my daughter’s name picked out since I was in my early 20s, way before I had ever looked at a Pottery Barn Kids catalog), but lo and behold, both my kid’s names are on the list.
Annoying Read:
A Working Mom Defends the ‘Lululemon Stay at Home Mother” (Forbes)
Just Ugh. What could have been a good discussion piece basically says ‘hey, working moms, don’t be jealous of the stay-home mom in yoga pants because she may have a jerk of a husband who expects her to be thin????” What??
How about – hey, working moms, don’t judge the stay at home mom in yoga pants. Hey, stay at home moms, don’t judge the working mom in her nice business clothes. Most of us are trying to make the best choices for our family.
For me, it means I stay home for now. Our life is significantly less stressful with only one corporate career to manage. Two corporate careers with two kids nearly killed us.
I’m grateful to have the opportunity to stay home, realize that not everyone has that choice but also realize that many professional women are indeed choosing to work over staying home with their kids. We are choosing to have me at home, which means we don’t have the nicest house on the block, we don’t take a lot of vacations and we stick to a budget to make one income work.
ps – I do wear yoga pants to school drop off sometime.
3 cheers on the last read. We’ve had this conversation, there is no right or wrong only what is right for you and your family.
I’m wearing yoga pants right now and don’t have any plans to do yoga today.
Rock on friend. Would ‘they’ rather we wear jeans? Does that make any difference whatsoever?? ps – chasing kids is practically yoga.
Thanks for sharing all of these! I tried really hard to pick names that were not common, and most definitely not Pottery Barn names, but 50% of my kids’ names are on the list. Dang it. There are also at least 3 other Cameron’s at his school. So far we are doing okay with Jace.
That last read…Will the working mom/stay-at-home mom debate ever end? We have way too many other things to do than fight over it. I’m so tired of the judging and the holier-than-thou perspectives. Let’s all just love and raise our kids the best way we know how–however that may be.
And, I am a total hippie, full of hippie bullsh*t, apparently.
I’m a hippie too. Good to know I’m not alone.
I was very annoyed by that article. Very. It could have been so good and thought provoking, but ended up sounding like a 9th grade English class assignment. Motherhood, if you’re trying, is hard whether you stay home or not. Sure there are some stay-home moms who are totally checked out, but there are some working moms who are too.
I’m in the hippie club, too.
Those mothering comparisons never end. And it makes it hard on new moms to determine what’s best– it’s often set up as a lose-lose scenario… either you give up the chance to raise your kids, or you let go of all chances of advancing your career. I completely agree with you- I wish we could trust that each mom is making the best decision for her family, and focus on the things we both care about (how to get healthier food into schools, for one?)
That last article sounds very interesting. I am a little jealous of the “lulu-clad” stay at home women I see….but mainly because they don’t have kids either and it seems their main job is to go to yoga and go out for smoothies or salads. (I do realize that would eventually get boring, but it sounds kind of nice?!)
There are a few women at my gym that seem to be stay-home wives (I never see them with kids). I am intrigued as to just what they do all day and if it ever gets old. I think it would be fun for a couple of weeks and then I would feel a strong need to contribute to something besides my figure.
Thanks for the interesting links. Neither of my kid’s names are on the Pottery Barn list. Although “Lucas” is which is pretty close to “Luke”. (He’s not a Lucas though…just Luke) Meghan is way too “outdated” I think. It had its hay day with the 80s born babies.
The 6 degrees of hippies cracked me up too! I never think of myself as a hippie, but maybe my health-seeking ways make me one. ha ha
as a grad student with 2 part time jobs, one of which i can do from home, i can testify that this is so true! i have to get out, even to “work” otherwise i just will eat all the time. on that note, i do know a few stay at home wives and all they seem to do is play with their pets & craft. gee, there’s only so much scrapbooking one can do.
Ha, interesting reads. Thanks for sharing!